University network website monitoring?
 

Hi,
I am connected to the Uni network via an ethernet port in my room. I was wondering if the administrators etc. know exactly what websites I am visiting etc. If they do, then how can I prevent this? I have heard something about proxy servers...is that right? If so, what are they, and how do they work?
Thanks guys
Robbie

well, they should publish it.

i know for a fact that UT doesnt monitor our traffic activity (saw it in an interview).

Just look around your ITS page and see if they monitor content.

afaik...

A proxy basically is something that allows you to access outside content be going 'through' the proxy server...

However, I would think that you would be going through the proxy AFTER your connection leaves the school - making the whole idea a bit pointless:

(You) -> (School) -> (Proxy) -> (Internet)

So, if I'm thinking correctly, this would just mask your school from the sites you visit - so the site wouldn't know it is coming from your school. I'm not exactly sure how you could get around this other than using a router on your computer - which would basically just tell the school that you 'someone' is going to those sites... they would probably just know its someone with a router.


ps. You probable have nothing to worry about. They usually have management programs to prioritize bandwith against things like Kazaa, however they dont actually sit there and monitor websites.

Good Luck ;)

The long and the short of this is that yes they could see what your looking at and you shouldn't expect privacy on a communaly used network that must be administered by someone.
Of course if your not looking at anything like kiddy porn or plans for chemical weapons the fact is that nobody cares what you look at unless it violates the schools fair use codes.
The fact is that no one student is important enough to bother to watch unless activity is noticed that piques an interest.
So the result is that unless your violating a law or school policy no one will care how much porn you download.:rolleyes:

arch said it right. Just don't go and get caught by some ISP while you're sharing a movie file on ANY file sharing network (not just Kazaa), cause then your school may very well be forced to turn off your internet connection thanks to a little letter they receive from Universal Studios notifying them of your file sharing activities. Don't believe me? There's a reason I'm not on TFP as much as I'd like to be right now ;) :(

You have more to worry about from the outside world than your school monitoring what you do. I know at my school they don't look at ANYTHING we do unless they see something unusual. So, for example, before I could freely use up multiple gigabytes of bandwidth a week doing whatever, and now I'll probably be monitored for the rest of the year (at least) thanks to Universal Studios so, in my case, maybe they WILL look at what I'm doing (although I doubt they'd go so far as to look at what websites I'm specifically visiting). So, the long and the short of it is, don't give them any reason to think they need to monitor you and chances are they won't.

EDIT: Wow, that's 2 posts in a row someone said "the long and the short." I don't even know where the phrase came from, I almost never use it, and I barely ever see it used by anyone else ever. This is quite a coincidence :p

Was the other one perhaps me as well? I have a habit of reusing phrases for a while then droping them.:D

I go to Appalachian State University. They're very, very lenient compared to other colleges around our area. P2P is allowed (but capped really low). The only thing that can get your Internet banned here is going online without the Blaster Worm patch. The entire ASU network was disabled for three weeks because of it. If you get it and get on the network with the worm, you're fucked the rest of the year.

Western Carolina University (another college in our area) is a bit...different. P2P ports are blocked, and if you even attempt to download anything copyrighted then you're instantly disabled from the network for the rest of the year. Same with the Blaster and SoBig issues, too: if you don't have the fix and get on the network with it, you lose Internet for the year. There are ways to get past the port blocking at WCU, but the moment the University finds out you're doing it, you know what happens.

-Lasereth

I don't think you have much to worry about. They can look at requests but unless your computer name is resolved it takes a bit of time to find out who in this room in this dorm on this subnet of campus is looking at big booties. Frankly that's too much work if you aren't doing anything illegal.

OK thanks a lot guys, I'll take it easy with bandwidth and hope for the best :D

Thanks again